The1926 Soviet census (Russian:Всесоюзная перепись населения, All-Union census) took place in December 1926. It was the first complete all-Union census in theSoviet Union and was an important tool in the state-building of theUSSR, provided the government with importantethnographic information, and helped in the transformation fromImperial Russian society to Soviet society. The decisions made by ethnographers in determining the ethnicity (narodnost) of individuals, whether in the Asiatic or European parts of the former Russian Empire, through the drawing up of the "List of Ethnicities of the USSR", and how borders were drawn in mixed areas had a significant influence on Soviet policies.^[1] Ethnographers, statisticians, and linguists were drawing up questionnaires and list of ethnicities for the census. However, they also had the more ambitious goal of deliberately transforming their identities according to the principles ofMarxism–Leninism. AsAnastas Mikoyan put it, the Soviet Union was "creating and organising new nations".^[2]

The first all-Union census was preceded by two partial censuses carried out by theBolsheviks after their seizure of power inRussia. The first, thegeneral census of 1920, took place during theCivil War and theSoviet-Polish War. It was thus unable to deal with theCrimea, much ofTranscaucasia,Ukraine,Byelorussia, Far Eastern,Siberian, and Central Asian parts of the Soviet Union as well as with its Far Northern parts. Yet it is worth to note that there was only 15,000,000 population increase between 1920 and 1926 constituting in some 131,304,931 people according to the TIME magazine while is still undisclosed in Russian history.^[3] The1923 Census was restricted to cities. Prior to theRussian Revolution, the onlyRussian Empire Census was done in 1897.

By classifying the population in terms ofnarodnosti (nationalities)—as opposed to tribe or clan—along withpolicies which gave these nations land, resources, and rights, experts and local elites were encouraged to interfere with the information collecting.^[4]

TheGeorgian andUkrainian delegations each had concerns with the formulation ofnarodnosti proposed in the census. The Georgian delegation proposed classifying the population in terms ofnatsionalʹnosti, as they considered it better suited for developed nations like Georgians. Ukrainian representatives preferred to use native language for classification instead of nationality. These protests did not lead to changes.^[5]

Responses to the question of nationality were at times reevaluated (changed) by census takers or later by state analysts for "correctness", as it was believed that some people would "confuse" nationality with such other categories as place of residence, native language, orclan.^[6]

This list, calledProgrammy i posobiya po razrabotke Vsesoyuznoy perepisi naseleniya 1926 goda, vol. 7,Perechen i slovar narodnostey, Moscow 1927, was developed by theCentral Statistical Administration of the USSR. In preparation to the census^[7]

For theTranscaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic,Georgians were considered the Titular Nationality.

•  Russian SFSR – 100,891,244 (urban 17,442,655)
  • Kazakh ASSR – 6,503,006 (urban 539,249)
  • Kirghiz ASSR – 993,004 (urban 121,080)
•  Ukrainian SSR – 29,018,187 (urban 5,373,553)
  • Moldavian ASSR – 572,114
•  Uzbek SSR – 5,272,801 (urban 1,102,218)
  • Tajik ASSR – 827,200
•  Byelorussian SSR – 4,983,240 (urban 847,830)
•  Transcaucasian SFSR
  •  Georgian SSR – 2,666,494 (urban 594,221)
  •  Azerbaijan SSR – 2,314,571 (urban 649,557)
  •  Armenian SSR – 880,464 (urban 167,098)
•  Turkmen SSR – 1,000,914 (urban 136,982)
• Total in theSoviet Union – 147,027,915 (urban 26,314,114)

The census aggregated census data for severalokruhas ofSoviet Ukraine in a larger subdivision called apidraion orpodraion (Russian:подрайон,romanized: podraion;Ukrainian:підрайон,romanized: pidraion). There were six such subdivisions.

• Administrative division of Ukraine (1918)
• Administrative divisions of Ukraine (1918–1925)
• Administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR
• Development of the administrative divisions of Ukraine
• Okruhas of the Ukrainian SSR

• All-Union census 1926 (Demoskop Weekly) (in Russian)
• Full text of "Всесоюзная перепись населения 17 декабря 1926 г", КРАТКИЕ СВОДКИ. ВЫПУСК IV. НАРОДНОСТЬ И РОДНОЙ ЯЗЫК НАСЕЛЕНИЯ СССР
• Raw texts of Summaries ("Краткие Сводки") III-X
• L'Oukraine. National Censuses and Vital Statistics in Europe, 1918-1939 (books.google.com).

• Henry Joachim Dubester (1948)."USSR: Census of 1926".National Censuses and Vital Statistics in Europe, 1918–1939: An Annotated Bibliography, with 1940–1948 Supplement. USA: Gale Research Company.
• Francine Hirsch (2005)Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union, Cornell University Press
  • Contains detailed information on the preparation of the census, on the definition of ethnicity (narodnost), etc.

• Ethnic groups in Russia
• Censuses in the Soviet Union
• 1926 in the Soviet Union
• 1926 censuses

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• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from December 2017
• Articles containing Ukrainian-language text